Human Rights & Humanitarian law

Every year, the European Court of Human Rights delivers a large number of judgments and an even greater number of decisions, thus adding to its already formidable body of case-law. This can make it difficult for people outside the Court to know which cases break new ground or address new issues. An increasingly important aspect of the Court’s work has thus become to identify such cases and to disseminate them in a convenient and accessible format.
The annual Overview series, available in English and French, seeks to respond to that need by focusing on the most important cases the Court deals with each year. All the cases are selected by the Court’s Jurisconsult’s Directorate on the basis of their jurisprudential interest. In addition to the cases chosen for publication in the Court’s Reports of Judgments and Decisions, they include a number of other cases that raise issues of general interest, establish new principles, or develop or clarify the case-law. The approach has been to draw attention to the salient points, allowing the reader to appreciate the jurisprudential significance of a particular case.

This fifth and final volume offers a critical assessment of the state of the law of nations. In the twenty first century the world needs true global law anchored in the dignity of the human person rather than weak international law built on the interests of major sovereign states. One hundred years after the outbreak of the Great or First World War in 1914 and twenty-five years after the peaceful end of the Cold War in 1989, little appears to have been learnt from the scale of disasters that befell the world between the assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 and the annexation of Sebastopol in 2014.
The failure to learn from history largely comes from unconverted political leaders and ideologies of progress. The birth of modern international law, assumed to have taken place in 1648, was no moment of progress, nor was the Congress of Vienna in 1815. The peace of Westphalia reduced the law of nations to interstate law.
Moreover, today’s dismal record of major sovereign powers, nicknamed the ‘international community’, with such issues as human rights, the use of force, the abolition of nuclear weapons and peace in the Middle-East proofs that for justice and order a transition from international law to global law needs to be realized.
Throughout the book one finds lightening examples of persons who, by their courage and dedication, could make the difference. Among them are Henri Dunant, Ruth Klüger, Andrei Sacharov, Nelson Mandela and Pope John-Paul II.
Since the successful and peaceful revolution in 1989 ended the division of Europe and the bipolar nuclear stalemate, we collectively entered the brave new world of organised forgetting. Nevertheless, the footprints of that past century are still all around. This series is intended to identify, to explain and to remember, because the more things are said to change, the more things appear to remain the same. We must therefore learn from history if only to avoid repeating a few of the blunders of the past century.
Prof. Jhr.Dr. Frans A.M.Alting von Geusau (1933) is professor (em.) of International Law and Western Cooperation at Tilburg University and Leiden University.

Footprints of the 20th Century - Third Edition

F.A.M. Alting von Geusau

The story of European Unification is fascinating. In 1950, two sworn enemies – France and Germany – decide to seek reconciliation and European federal unity. As a first step, they created the European Coal and Steel Community together with Italy and the Benelux countries. The fathers of this new Europe were visionary persons. Does today`s student or scholar still know who Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer, Alcide de Gasperi or Willem Beyen were and what they stood for?
At the time, the United Kingdom refused the invitation to join such a federal project. Under American pressure they asked for admission in 1961, entered in 1973 without ever accepting the federal project and decided to leave in March 2017 after a small majority voted for Brexit in June 2016.
What began as a process of reconciliation between two enemies – France and Germany – became a peaceful enlargement of the European Union to twenty-eight Member States. The division of Europe between a Soviet dominated East and a Euro-Atlantic West is no more.
This volume not only tells a success story. It also makes us understand why after more than sixty years the Germans lack the solidarity and the French the political vision to turn the Euro-crisis into true progress towards unity. Against the background of Europe`s long and turbulent history, this book may also help to understand why it is so difficult to overcome nationalism and to practice the virtue of solidarity so central to the Christian source of Europe as a civilization.
Since the successful and peaceful revolution in 1989 ended the division of Europe and the bipolar nuclear stalemate, we collectively entered the brave new world of organised forgetting. Nevertheless, the footprints of that past century are still all around. This series is intended to identify, to explain and to remember, because the more things are said to change, the more things appear to remain the same. We must therefore learn from history if only to avoid repeating a few of the blunders of the past century.
Prof. Jhr.Dr. Frans A.M.Alting von Geusau (1933) is professor (em.) of International Law and Western Cooperation at Tilburg University and Leiden University.

Footprints of the 20th Century - Third Edition

F.A.M. Alting von Geusau

For the study of international relations, knowledge of the history of Western Cooperation in the Twentieth Century is essential. The third volume reviews the broader history from America’s entry in the First World War in 1917 and the start of the American Era in international relations one hundred years ago, to the inauguration of President Trump in 2017.
The American Era in world politics may well have come to its final end, when US President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Theresa May agreed to build a new special, bilateral relationship on “America First” and “Global Britain”. The Atlantic Charter (1941) founded the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain, for that purpose. In reality, the special relationship was instrumental in creating the system of successful Western cooperation, characterized by new multilateral institutions – exactly the opposite of what President Trump and Prime Minister May had in mind for their special bilateral relationship, when they met in January 2017.
This volume on “Western Cooperation” deals with the American era in world politics, characterised by the creation of such international institutions as the League of Nations, the United Nations, ILO, IBRD, IMF and UNESCO. NATO, the principal subject of Part II in this volume, was considered to be the cornerstone of the Alliance of democracies since the onset of the Cold War.
In Part II, developments are examined in a circumscribed period – from the outbreak of the First World War in July 1914 to the celebration of NATO’s Sixtieth Anniversary on 4 April 2009, and the New Epilogue covers until the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States in January 2017.
Since the successful and peaceful revolution in 1989 ended the division of Europe and the bipolar nuclear stalemate, we collectively entered the brave new world of organised forgetting. Nevertheless, the footprints of that past century are still all around. This series is intended to identify, to explain and to remember, because the more things are said to change, the more things appear to remain the same. We must therefore learn from history if only to avoid repeating a few of the blunders of the past century.
Prof. Jhr.Dr. Frans A.M. Alting von Geusau (1933) is professor (em.) of International Law and Western Cooperation at Tilburg University and Leiden University.

Footprints of the 20th Century - Third Edition

F.A.M. Alting von Geusau

Since 1989, we refer to the whole post-war period as the “Cold War Era”. Such was not the case in 1968. At the time, the Cold War – in our perception – was behind us. We no longer felt to be in the midst of it. Europeans on the Western side of the Iron Curtain0 felt relatively at ease with Europe’s division. The era of Détente as we called it, was0 considered to be a fairly stable and long-lasting political condition, even after Soviet tanks crushed Dubcek’s socialism with a human face in Prague.
A strange year it was… 1968. Academic interest was focused on the war in Vietnam, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the French Gaullist challenge to the European Communities and the student revolt in Paris. The Western democracies promoted the process of détente on the basis of three political illusions. They assumed that common institutions between East and West would generate a sense of common interest in European security, facilitating negotiated solutions of outstanding problems. They expected East-West economic cooperation to promote reform from above in the East, towards more open societies. They hoped to foster democracy and respect for human
rights through cooperation in the cultural and human dimension. By 1989 all three of them had proven to be illusions. The end of the Soviet system came as a complete surprise to most politicians and to all Western advocates of détente in the Nineteen Eighties. The so-called dissidents won a peaceful victory over the one-party, repressive regimes in the East and helped to end the post-war division of Europe. Obviously, neither the (now former) communists nor the advocates of détente ever admitted their wrong. So they went all into the business of proclaiming a new era as a continuation of the old one. The greatest catastrophe of the Twentieth Century was Lenin`s creation of totalitarian Soviet Russia at the end of the Great War and not its collapse at the end0 of the Cold War, as president Putin said in 2005. This volume particularly challenges the past illusions of détente and the present approach of organized forgetting the past.
Since the successful and peaceful revolution in 1989 ended the division of Europe and the bipolar nuclear stalemate, we collectively entered the brave new world of organised forgetting. Nevertheless, the footprints of that past century are still all around. This0 series is intended to identify, to explain and to remember, because the more things are0 said to change, the more things appear to remain the same. We must therefore learn from history if only to avoid repeating a few of the blunders of the past century.
Prof. Jhr.Dr. Frans A.M.Alting von Geusau (1933) is professor (em.) of International Law and Western Cooperation at Tilburg University and Leiden University.

Volume I - Cultural Diplomacy: Waging War by other Means

F.A.M. Alting von Geusau

The peaceful collapse of the Soviet totalitarian, communist system has been a watershed of historic proportions in Europe and the world. In 1989, unexpectedly, Communism and the Cold War were behind us, they were bad and should be forgotten. The immediate post-1989 world presented itself as a new era of organised forgetting, as neither East nor West were interested in examining the prolonged period of acquiescence in absurdities.
The Berlin Wall, paramount symbol of absurdity, had to be erased from the face of the earth and the memory of the people. Only much later have we become aware how much the heritage of repression and division still dominates our thinking. The principal organisations of Western and European cooperation have been enlarged Eastward, but the fruits of peaceful, spiritual revolution have turned sour. Far too little has changed for the better and far too many old habits have survived.
For the question asked in this volume: Is bilateral cultural diplomacy waging war with other means? There still is no good answer. The surprise of 1989 has apparently paralyzed policies thereafter. Despite resounding declarations and non-binding resolutions on a new order, there was no vision, no strategy and no clear purpose. The basic approach was “more of the same”. Cultural diplomacy had no priority and budgets were cut in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Since the successful and peaceful revolution in 1989 ended the division of Europe and the bipolar nuclear stalemate, we collectively entered the brave new world of organised forgetting. Nevertheless, the footprints of that past century are still all around. This series is intended to identify, to explain and to remember, because the more things are said to change, the more things appear to remain the same. We must therefore learn from history if only to avoid repeating a few of the blunders of the past century.
Prof. Jhr.Dr. Frans A.M.Alting von Geusau (1933) is professor (em.) of International Law and Western Cooperation at Tilburg University and Leiden University.

The national diversity of Europe is reflected in the diversity of its criminal landscape and history. From the north of Scotland to Ukraine one finds different focal points and patterns of crimes and criminal entrepreneurs. This does not necessarily lead to a corresponding reaction of the authorities. Some responses are the result of a gradually developed form of cross-border cooperation, as is the case between Poland and Germany, other authorities appear carried away with emotional decision making and an inflexible political correctness as is observed in the field of the sex service industry. In another country, in the adjacent field of child trafficking, we find the converse: no response as victims are not labelled as such. And no victim label, no criminal law policy.
Where the interactions between the upper- and underworld come into sight, this volume presents the reader with a select picture gallery of criminal faces: from corrupt football to remarkable criminal finances in Ukraine, to fraud and criminal abuse in the informal or quack health sector. Naturally, each face has its own pretences in order to hide its criminal background, be it large scale cannabis growing in the Netherlands or organised cybercrime from Romania to all countries in Europe.
Indeed, the criminal portrait series in this Cross-border Crime Volume shows that criminal Europe does not lead to a boring uniformity, despite the fear of globalism.
This sixteenth volume of the Cross-border Crime Colloquium contains the seventeen peer-reviewed contributions of 26 authors presented in 2016 at the Cross-border Crime Colloquium held at Northumbria University, Newcastle. The authors represent upcoming experts and established researchers in the field of (organised) crime for profit and related policies. The contributions are based on empirical research and independent analysis and provide new data and insights on which to build new theories and future research.

Direct International Human Rights Obligations of non-State Actors

Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli

In this book, addressing the reality that non-state actors do violate human rights in practice, which cannot be overlooked, Prof. Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli argues that the foundations and main principles of international human rights law call for the regulation of direct nonstate obligations and responsibilities, given the potential failure of domestic actions and the limits of voluntary strategies. In part I, the author presents his ideas on why non-state abuses should be regarded as human rights violations and wrongful acts. In this sense, Chapter 1 explores why the protection of human dignity, being non-conditional, cannot depend on the presence of a State abuser. Chapter 2 explores the idea that every conduct contrary to human rights has legal relevance and requires a correlative appropriate legal response. Chapter 3 reinforces the previous ideas in light of the peremptory principle of non-discrimination; with Chapter 4 providing suggestions on when direct international action should take place. Part II, afterwards, studies why direct protection from non-state violations is possible and what legal mechanisms and institutions permit to make it effective. In Chapter 5, the author argues that the notion of international legal personality is not an obstacle since regarding addressees as subjects highlights the possibility of there being direct non-state international duties, which would not weaken existing human rights protections. Chapter 6 presents the argument that there are already implied human rights obligations of non-state actors, and that complementary obligations should be created. Chapter 7 explores the idea that non-state responsibility can coexist with that of other participants in violations, and that non-state responsibility is often a precondition of full reparations. The fi nal Chapter turns to the examination of the mechanisms that can be used to respond to or prevent non-state violations of human rights law. The book is based on the idea that the protagonists of human rights law are individuals, who deserve protection from all abusers, be them States, armed groups, international organizations, or other actors.
Nicolás Carrillo-Santarelli has a PhD in International Law and International Relations from the Autónoma de Madrid University and is currently Associate Professor of International Law at La Sabana University, Colombia.

Humanitarian Intervention as an Exception to the Prohibition on the Use of Force

Petra Zvržina

The core objective of the United Nations is to strive towards peace and security in international community. Recent flows of refugees to Europe have led to wonder how the international community could help both people facing abuses of their fundamental rights, and also European countries to which they are immigrating. However, since 1945, the use of force has been prohibited with no mention of interventions for humanitarian purposes. The question remains, when unauthorised humanitarian intervention as a last resort measure can be justified in a world of jus cogens prohibition of the use of force.
In public international law, new rules of customary law emerge through sufficient State practice and opinio juris, therefore it might turn out that humanitarian interventions will be justified under customary international law. Always when concerned with the protection of human rights, specific criteria shall be drawn in order to prevent abuses. The present book is a master thesis, which is going to answer the question of justifiability of the use of force for humanitarian purposes without the United Nations Security Council approval, drawn from Iraq and Kosovo cases, and evolving customary international law.
“If humanitarian intervention is indeed an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica – to gross and systematic violations of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity?” (Kofi Annan, Millennium Report of Secretary-General of the United Nations, 2000)

Corruption and Human Rights

André T. D. Figueiredo

Some scholars and even human rights monitoring bodies have started to make the connection between corruption and human rights violations. When asked about this connection, most people easily picture a country ruled by a dictator who steals public money to support his luxury life while the population suffers from the lack of essential public services, such as healthcare and education. The connection in itself is appealing. Nonetheless, sometimes this connection is made without the proper concern for fully developing the argument and its consequences.
The purpose of this study is to go beyond this appealing link and to clarify the argument that making an explicit link with human rights has indeed added value. Framing corruption as a human rights violation cannot be an end in itself, a pure exercise of relabeling the problem. This study aims to give a practical significance to the connection by addressing, in a non-exhaustive way, the practical value of framing corruption as a human rights violation and the possibilities in which international human rights law can be used to strengthen the fight against corruption. By doing so, this book also presents how UN human rights bodies are referring to corruption, and how they could contribute more to fighting this global problem.
This book is an adapted version of the author's LL.M. thesis presented at Radboud University in June 2016,where he graduated cum laude after being the recipient of a scholarship.

The World’s Stateless

Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion

International law protects the right of every child to acquire a nationality.
Yet, childhood statelessness pervades all regions of the world.
At least a third of the 15 million people who face life without a nationality today, are children.
And, every ten minutes, another child is born stateless.
The disconnect between the recognition of nationality as a fundamental child right and the reality of childhood statelessness presents a massive challenge, but also opens up a wealth of opportunities. Childhood statelessness is entirely preventable. It is never in a child’s best interests to be stateless, nor is it ever a child’s “fault” if they are left without nationality. We are proud to devote this edition of our flagship report, The World’s Stateless 2017, to exploring the urgency of and opportunities for addressing childhood statelessness. Over 50 experts and organisations have contributed material – essays, interviews, photographs and more. Collectively, they deal with a multitude of different dimensions of childhood statelessness, with chapters exploring the right to a nationality, challenges in the context of migration and displacement, the significance of the Sustainable Development Agenda, the mechanics of safeguards against statelessness for children, and litigation, legal assistance and other forms of moblisation as strategies to tackle childhood statelessness. As with every edition of The World’s Stateless, this publication also offers a more general overview of the state of statelessness globally in 2017.
The Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion is an independent non-profit organisation, committed to ending statelessness and disenfranchisement through the promotion of human rights, participation and inclusion. For more information about our work, please visit www.institutesi.org.

With this book, Amélie Poméon won the Hanneke Steenbergen Scriptie Prijs 2016 (prize for the best master thesis in the field of migration law in the Netherlands for the year 2015/2016). Hanneke Steenbergen taught migration law at the University of Leiden and was highly dedicated to the promotion of migration law education. After her death, a commemorative foundation was established, the primary purpose of which is to award a yearly prize stimulating research and interest in migration law issues.
This book discusses the question to what extent Frontex (and, to a more limited degree, its successor, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency) can be held accountable for breaches of EU law acting both inside and outside EU territory.
The issues covered include a detailed discussion of Frontex’ tasks and competences, the legal position and status of EU agencies, agency accountability and the distinction between the notions of accountability and responsibility as well as the extraterritorial applicability of EU law. It also addresses the question whether an individual complaint mechanism can and should be introduced within the Agency’s setup.
“Amélie provides with her thesis an almost encyclopedic document about Frontex, the European Agency for management of operational cooperation at the external borders of the European Union. Frontex plays an important role in protecting external borders and therefore has a direct impact on many people’s lives. […] Worth mentioning is that she took an interesting approach by incorporating interviews with various experts on the ground. […] So, a very thorough piece of work on a problem that maintains to be in the forefront of every ones attention.”
Jury report Hanneke Steenbergen scriptieprijs 2016

The United Nations and the Question of Palestine - Volume 21

O. Agrest, W. van der Wolf

The Palestine problem became an international issue towards the end of the First World War with the disintegration of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Arab territories which were placed under the administration of Great Britain under the Mandates System adopted by the League of Nations pursuant to the League`s Covenant (Article 22) . All but one of these Mandated Territories became fully independent States, as anticipated. The exception was Palestine where, instead of being limited to "the rendering of administrative assistance and advice" the Mandate had as a primary objective the implementation of the "Balfour Declaration" issued by the British Government in 1917, expressing support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". Since the 1990`s violence in the region spread again. The assassination of Prime-Minister Rabin and the tensions in the occupied territories did keep the Question of Palestine on the international agenda. In this collection of documents a complete overview of the United Nations efforts to establish a peaceful situation in the region is being published.

In the first 16 volumes annual developments from 1946-2000 are being provided. From 2000 onwards separate volumes containing documents and background-informationare being published frequently.
To complete the first 16 volumes a separate Index and Historical volume linking the documents in this first part of the collection will be published.

The Palestine problem became an international issue towards the end of the First World War with the disintegration of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Arab territories which were placed under the administration of Great Britain under the Mandates System adopted by the League of Nations pursuant to the League`s Covenant (Article 22) . All but one of these Mandated Territories became fully independent States, as anticipated. The exception was Palestine where, instead of being limited to "the rendering of administrative assistance and advice" the Mandate had as a primary objective the implementation of the "Balfour Declaration" issued by the British Government in 1917, expressing support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". Since the 1990`s violence in the region spread again. The assassination of Prime-Minister Rabin and the tensions in the occupied territories did keep the Question of Palestine on the international agenda. In this collection of documents a complete overview of the United Nations efforts to establish a peaceful situation in the region is being published.

In the first 16 volumes annual developments from 1946-2000 are being provided. From 2000 onwards separate volumes containing documents and background-informationare being published frequently.
To complete the first 16 volumes a separate Index and Historical volume linking the documents in this first part of the collection will be published.

The Palestine problem became an international issue towards the end of the First World War with the disintegration of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Arab territories which were placed under the administration of Great Britain under the Mandates System adopted by the League of Nations pursuant to the League`s Covenant (Article 22) . All but one of these Mandated Territories became fully independent States, as anticipated. The exception was Palestine where, instead of being limited to "the rendering of administrative assistance and advice" the Mandate had as a primary objective the implementation of the "Balfour Declaration" issued by the British Government in 1917, expressing support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". Since the 1990`s violence in the region spread again. The assassination of Prime-Minister Rabin and the tensions in the occupied territories did keep the Question of Palestine on the international agenda. In this collection of documents a complete overview of the United Nations efforts to establish a peaceful situation in the region is being published.

In the first 16 volumes annual developments from 1946-2000 are being provided. From 2000 onwards separate volumes containing documents and background-informationare being published frequently.
To complete the first 16 volumes a separate Index and Historical volume linking the documents in this first part of the collection will be published.

The Palestine problem became an international issue towards the end of the First World War with the disintegration of the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Palestine was among the several former Ottoman Arab territories which were placed under the administration of Great Britain under the Mandates System adopted by the League of Nations pursuant to the League`s Covenant (Article 22) . All but one of these Mandated Territories became fully independent States, as anticipated. The exception was Palestine where, instead of being limited to "the rendering of administrative assistance and advice" the Mandate had as a primary objective the implementation of the "Balfour Declaration" issued by the British Government in 1917, expressing support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". Since the 1990`s violence in the region spread again. The assassination of Prime-Minister Rabin and the tensions in the occupied territories did keep the Question of Palestine on the international agenda. In this collection of documents a complete overview of the United Nations efforts to establish a peaceful situation in the region is being published.

In the first 16 volumes annual developments from 1946-2000 are being provided. From 2000 onwards separate volumes containing documents and background-informationare being published frequently.
To complete the first 16 volumes a separate Index and Historical volume linking the documents in this first part of the collection will be published.